Reports & Studies

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Committee on Economic Security (CES)

"Social Security In America"

Part IV

PROVISIONS FOR THE BLIND

Chapter XVII

PROVISIONS FOR THE BLIND

THE CENSUS of 1930 listed 63,489 people in the United States as being
blind. This represents 52 blind people for each 100,000 in the total population.
There are, however, great differences between the States in this ratio,
the range being from 30 per 100,000 in New Jersey to 143 per 100,000 in
New Mexico.

All people who have studied the problem are agreed that the census understates
the number of the blind in this country. The major reason for this understatement
appears to be that many of the census takers neglect to ask the question
whether any member in the household is blind. Further, there is no agreement
as to the degree of loss of vision which constitutes blindness. There
are probably at least 100,000 people in this country who are blind within
the definitions of the term used in State laws for aid to the blind.

Among the blind the older people predominate. Of all the blind listed
in the census, 28,113 were over 65 years of age, representing more than
40 percent of the total number of the blind. Another 17,814 were from
45 to 64 years of age.

The great majority of the blind are needy. Of all the blind in the United
States listed in the census of 1920, only 7,177 reported that they were
gainfully occupied. Similar information is not found in the census of
1930, but data available from State censuses indicate that since the advent
of the depression the percentage of blind persons gainfully employed has
decreased. Not more than 15 to 20 percent of all the blind are gainfully
occupied, and most of those who are so classified are not entirely self-supporting.

STATE LEGISLATION FOR THE BLIND {1}

State legislation for the blind has taken four principal forms (1) educational
and vocational training, principally of blind children; (2) workshops
for the adult blind, maintained with State as sistance; (3) field work
in locating the blind, extending to them medical and similar assistance,
help in procuring employment, and

{1} Unless otherwise noted, data in this section were taken from "Public
Provision for Pensions for the Blind in 1934", Monthly Labor
Review, vol. 41, no. 3, September 1935, p. 584-601.

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assistance in the marketing of products produced by the blind; and (4)
cash grants to the blind.

Educational and vocational training is carried on principally in State
schools for the blind and in special day classes established in connection
with the public-school system, particularly in urban centers. There are
also a considerable number of private institutions of this character.

Workshops for the blind have long been maintained as State institutions,
and are also conducted by privates organizations. In these workshops adult
blind people carry on some occupations for which they have training, particularly
basket weaving, rug making, etc. The number of blind people employed in
such special workshops has never exceeded a few thousand.

All but 10 States (Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska,
Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota) carry on some field work
for the blind. In 13 States (Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
Washington, West Virginia), however, expenditures for this purpose are
less than $5 per year for each blind person in the State. A minimum expenditure
of $25 per blind person per year is generally regarded as necessary, but
only six States (Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire,
and New York) expended this amount for this purpose in the latest year
for which data are available.{2}

Mr. Irwin, in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee {2} outlined
the requirements of a constructive program for the blind as including
medical care for the eyes, if sight can be restored or improved, vocational
guidance and training, placement, sheltered employment, home instruction
in Braille (the embossed type used by the blind), social service, and
care of blind children of preschool age. An amendment to the social security
bill, introduced in the Senate, carried an appropriation of $1,500,000
to be distributed to the States for the purpose of assisting them on a
matching basis in locating blind persons, in providing diagnoses of their
eye conditions, and in training and employment of the adult blind. This
amendment was dropped by the conference committee.

As of August 1, 1935, 27 States had laws providing for cash payments
to the blind. These are Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana,

Maine, Maryland, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington,
Wisconsin, and Wyoming. No complete data are at hand regarding the expenditures
in these States for aid to the blind. From the latest reports it would
appear, however, that in 24

of these States there was a total of 31,909 recipients of grants at the
end of 1934, or 68.4 percent of the total blind population of the 24 States
in 1930.{3} The total expenditures for blind persons in these States amounted
to $6,880,015 in 1934. The average grant paid was $19.96 per month, with
a range from $0.83 in Arkansas to $33.12 in California. (See table 65.)

{3} A report from Wisconsin gives 3,742 as the number of blind persons
in the State. The 1930 census reported only 1,530 blind persons in Wisconsin,
while the State records showed 3,033 in that year. The census therefore
underestimated the blind population by nearly one-half. The figure presented
in table 65 indicates that 121.2 percent of the State's 1930 blind population
was in receipt of pensions in 1934. Utilizing corrected data for the 1930
census this percentage becomes 54. Wisconsin State Board of Control, Blind
Persons in Wisconsin, 1907-34 (mimeographed report), 1935, p. 8.

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The maximum grants payable range, from $150 per year in New Hampshire
to $600 a year in four States (California, Kansas, Nevada, and Utah).
In Wyoming also, a maximum of $600 a year is paid to a blind person who
is the head of a family. The Minnesota law sets no maximum, except in
the case of two blind persons who have contracted marriage after the passage
of the act, where the maximum joint grant is limited to $360 a year.

The following tabulation indicates the maximum yearly grants set by State
laws:

In eight States the average grants were less than one-half the maximum
payable under the State laws; in eight States the average grants were
between one-half and two-thirds of the maximum; and in six States the
average was more than two-thirds of the maximum allowable. The average
allowance in California was about 30 percent higher than the average paid
in Illinois, the State with the next highest average. In these two States
and in four others (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri), which
are highly industrialized, the average amount paid was over $20 a month.
Yet Ohio, also an industrial State, ranked among the lowest five States
in the size of its average grant to the blind-only $10.04 a month. In
Arkansas, where the grants averaged 83 cents a month, blind persons were
given a flat grant of $10 a year, although the maximum allowed by law
is $300 a year.

The range in individual monthly grants is very wide, varying from $1
to $50 a month. The distribution of recipients of aid to the blind according
to the size of their monthly grants is available for two States ( Colorado
and New Jersey). In Colorado for the year ending June 30, 1933, 685 persons
received monthly grants in accordance with the following percentage distribution:
$5, 0.1 percent; $6.25, 5.0 percent; $8, 0.4 percent; $10, 7.2 percent;
$12.50, 1.0 percent; $15, 24.5 percent; $20, 18.8 percent; $25 (the maximum
payable), 42.9 percent. In New Jersey monthly grants to the blind were
paid during 1934 in accordance with the following percentage distribution:

It may be noted from table 65 that less than one-half of the States contribute
toward the costs of aid to the blind. In Arkansas, Connecticut, Maine,
Minnesota, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, the costs of the system are borne
entirely by the State. In Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Utah, and Washington, the State takes
no part in the financing, and in New Jersey the State merely bears the
cost of administering the system, spending $1,013 for this purpose in
1934. In the remaining five States (California, Colorado, Illinois, New
Hampshire, and Wisconsin) the systems are financed jointly by State and
county funds.

The existing laws for aid to the blind differ considerably in their provisions
(see table 66). The laws of 19 States are mandatory (Arkansas, California,
Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri,
New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Washington,
Wisconsin, Wyoming). In 15 of these States, with a total population of
61,047,000 in 1930, the laws were operative in 754 of the 895 counties
in 1934 and covered a population of 54,681,000, or 93 percent of the total
number of persons residing in these States in 1930. In eight States (
Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, Nevada, and Utah)
the laws are optional with the counties. Seven of these States have a
total of 487 counties, with a 1930 population of 105,575,000. Of these
counties, 162, or one-third of the total, had adopted systems of aid to
the blind in 1934, covering a population of 3,765,000, or less than 36
percent of the total number of persons in the seven States in 1930.

Most of the laws establish a minimum age, which is commonly either 18
or 21 years, but California and Utah have a 16-year minimum, Colorado
has a 40-year minimum, and Louisiana has a 60-year minimum. Most States
also prescribe a specified residence period within the State, which is
4 years in 1 State, 5 years in 10 States, 7 years in 3 States, and 9 years
in 9 States.

All State laws, except that of Kansas, have a means qualification, which
is similar to the property and income qualification in old-age assistance
laws. The acts of 11 States prohibit persons from receiving blind allowances
if they have financially competent relatives (Colorado, Indiana, Kansas,
Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska., New Jersey, Utah, Washington,
and Wisconsin), whereas no such exclusion is provided in the laws of the
other 16 States with systems for aid to the blind. Thirteen States refuse
grants to inmates of public charitable institutions (California, Colorado,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma,
Pennsylvania, Utah, and Washington); Colorado further excludes inmates

of private charitable institutions; Maine and Wisconsin also exclude
inmates of penal institutions; Oklahoma and Pennsylvania deny aid to persons
confined in houses of correction; and Missouri excludes inmates of either
penal institutions or institutions for the insane. In Maine and in Oklahoma
a blind person may receive an allowance after leaving the institution
to which he was committed.

The acts of 10 States (California, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota,
Missouri, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin) refuse aid to professional
beggars, and in Missouri benefits are denied persons who refuse training
or other measures designed to make them self-supporting.

Aid to the blind is discontinued in New York if a recipient of aid marries
another blind or partially blind person, and in Minnesota a limit of $30
a month is set as the maximum joint grant to blind persons who contracted
marriage after passage of the act.

Definitions of blindness in five State laws limit aid to those whose
vision is "so defective as to prevent self-support" (Indiana,
Maryland, New York, Oklahoma, and Washington). The laws of two States
(Kentucky and Nebraska) define blindness as "destitute of useful
vision." The Kansas law requires that the applicant for aid to the
blind must have lost the sight of both eyes; the Missouri law defines
blindness as "no more than light perception"; the Minnesota
law defines blindness as insufficient ocular power for ordinary affairs;
and three State laws specify the proportion of loss of normal vision which
qualifies an individual for a grant as follows: Maine, less than one-tenth
of normal vision; Pennsylvania; less than 3/60 of normal vision; Wyoming,
less than 3/60 to 10/200 of normal vision.

The laws of eight States (Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine; Minnesota,
Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming) provide for complete financing of
the system for aid to the blind by the State government; California, Colorado,
and Illinois laws specify that the State shall bear one-half the cost;
and the Wisconsin law provides that the State shall make one-third of
the total expenditures. State disbursements for blind allowances in 1934,
however, fell below the legally specified proportions in Colorado, in
Illinois, and in Wisconsin. In New Hampshire, on the other hand, 68.9
percent of the total cost was borne by the State government in 1934, even
though State participation is not provided for in the law. During 1934
aid to the blind in New Hampshire was financed as a part of the relief
program, utilizing county, State, and Federal funds.

Only five State laws specify the method to be used in raising State funds
for aid to the blind: Arkansas, by a tax on billiard and pool rooms; Illinois,
Missouri, and Wisconsin by a property tax; and Wyoming by taxes on liquor.
In the other States which provide for State

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financial participation the appropriations are presumably made front
general funds.

Counties in eight States are authorized to pay blind allowances from
general county funds (Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, Ohio, and Oklahoma); and in Iowa, counties may use either
general funds or poor funds for this purpose. Five States authorize counties
to levy special property taxes for revenue for aid to the blind (California,
Maryland, Nevada, Utah, and Washington).

Table 66 indicates the administrative authority for aid to the blind
in the 27 States which have blind pension laws.{4} As a rule applications
for grants are first passed upon by the designated county authorities,
such as the commissioners or local courts. In some of the States a State
office is charged with ultimate supervision and control, but in 10 States
(Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah,
Washington, and Wisconsin) the county commissioners, and in Iowa the county
board of supervisors, have entire charge of the system. In Idaho the authority
for the system is the judge of the county probate court. In Arkansas,
California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and
Wyoming the decision of the local authority is subject to review by a
State agency; whereas in Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, and
New York the entire authority is placed in a special commission for the
blind or in some other State office.

PROVISIONS FOR THE BLIND
IN THE FEDERAL SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

To enable the States to furnish financial assistance, as far as practicable
under the conditions in each State, to needy blind individuals, the Social
Security Act has authorized $3,000,000 {5} for the fiscal year ending
June 30,1936, and has authorized for each fiscal year thereafter the appropriation
of a sum sufficient to carry out the purposes of the title of the act.
The sums thus made available will be used for making payments to States
which have submitted and had approved by the Social Security Board, State
plans for aid to the blind.

Table 67 summarizes the provisions of the Social Security Act for Federal
grants to the States for aid to the blind. In order to be approved by
the Social Security Board, a State plan for aid to

{4}As of Aug. 1, 1935.

{5} The Social Security Act was not approved until Aug. 14, 1935, and
the supplemental appropriation bill, fiscal year 1936 [H. R. 9215], failed
of passage in the first session of the Seventy-fourth Congress. The Supplemental
Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1936, Public, No. 440, 74th Cong., 2d sess.
[H. R. 10464], approved Feb.11, 1936, included an appropriation of $2,000,000
for the remainder of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1936.

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the blind must be in effect in all parts of the State and be administered
by a single State agency or, if it is administered by political subdivisions,
its administration must be supervised by a single State agency. It is
further required that the State shall participate in financing aid to
the needy blind. With respect to methods of administration (other than
those relating to selection, tenure of office, and compensation of personnel)
and reports to the Federal agency the State plan must comply with whatever
regulations the Social Security Board may find necessary. Furthermore,
individuals whose claims are denied must be afforded opportunity for a
fair hearing before the State agency; they must not be excluded by a residence
requirement in excess of 5 years within the 9 years preceding date of
application and 1 year's continuous residence immediately preceding application;
the State's citizenship requirement must not exclude any citizen of the
United States; and applicants must be considered ineligible for aid to
the blind if they are in receipt of old-age assistance under a State plan
approved by the Federal Social Security Board.

The Secretary of the Treasury, on certification of a State plan by the
Social Security Board, will pay to the State (1) a quarterly amount equal
to one-half of the amount paid by the State to each needy, blind individual
who is not an inmate of a public institution, except that the Federal
grant shall not exceed $15 per month per individual in receipt of money
payments from the State; and (2) 5 percent of the Federal grant for money
payments to individuals to be used solely for State administrative expenses
or for aid to the blind or for both purposes.

The amount to be paid each State will be computed each quarter by the
Federal Social Security Board after the receipt of reports from the State
agency relative to the total number of blind persons in the State, the
amounts to be expended by the State, and the amount and source of State
funds to be made available.

If, after approval of a State plan for aid to the blind, the Social Security
Board finds that the operation of the plan fails to comply with the requirements
of the Federal law, the Board, after due notice to allow opportunity for
hearing to the State agency, will inform the agency that further payments
will be withheld until conditions are rectified.

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TABLE 67.-Summary of provisions for Federal
grants to States for aid to the blind

[To be made by the Social Security Board under title
{1} of the Social Security Act]

DEFINITION

Aid to the blind means money payments to needy blind individuals.

CERTIFICATION OF STATE PLAN FOR FEDERAL GRANTS

A State, in order to receive a Federal grant, must submit a plan
and have it approved by the Social Security Board as meeting the
following requirements:

1. Effective in all political subdivisions of the State and, if
administered by them, mandatory upon them;

2. Provision for financial participation by the State;

3. Either provision for the establishment or designation of a single
State agency to administer the plan, or for the establishment or
designation of a single State agency to supervise the administration
of the plan;

4. Provision for granting to any individual whose claim for aid
is denied, an opportunity for a fair hearing before such State agency
;

5. Such methods of administration (other than those relating to
selection, tenure of office, and compensation of personnel) as are
found by the Social Security Board to be necessary for the efficient
operation of the plan ;

6. Submission of such reports in such form and containing such
information as the Federal Social Security Board may from time to
time require, and compliance with the provisions which the Board
may from time to time find necessary to assure the correctness and
verification of such reports ;

7. Denial of aid to any individual under the plan with respect
to any period when he is receiving old-age assistance under a federally
approved plan.

A State plan will not be approved if it imposes:

1. A residence requirement which excludes any resident of the State
who has resided therein 5 years during the 9 years immediately preceding
the application for aid and who has resided therein continuously
for 1 year preceding application;

2. A citizenship requirement which excludes any citizen of the
United States.

AMOUNT OF GRANT TO EACH STATE

1. A quarterly amount which shall be used exclusively as aid to
the blind, equal to one-half of the total sums expended in the State
in such quarter as aid to the needy blind who are not inmates of
public institutions, not counting so much of such expenditure to
any individual in excess of $30 a month;

2. Five percent of the total Federal quarterly grant to be used
solely for costs of administering the State plan or for aid to the
blind, or both.

METHODS OF COMPUTING AND PAYING GRANTS

1. Estimates of amounts to be paid States will be based on:

(a) State report of total sum to be expended each quarter for aid
to the blind, with statement of amount appropriated or made available
by the State and its political subdivisions. (If the amount appropriated
is leas than one-half of the total sum of estimated quarterly expenditures,
the source or sources from which the difference is expected to be
derived must be stated.)

(b) Records of the total number of blind individuals in the State.

(c) Such investigation as the Social Security Board may find necessary.

2. Payments will be made to the State:

(a) After certification by the Social Security Board to the Secretary
of the Treasury of the amount due the State reduced or increased
by any sum by which its estimate for any prior quarter was greater
or leas than the amount which should have been paid;

(b) By the Secretary of the Treasury, through the Division of Disbursement,
prior to audit or settlement by the General Accounting Office.

SUSPENSION OF GRANTS

If the Social Security Board finds, after reasonable notice and
opportunity for hearing to the State agency administering or supervising
the administration of the State plan, that the plan has been so
changed as to impose prohibited residence or citizenship requirements,
or fails to comply substantially with conditions required for Federal
approval, the Board shall notify the State agency that Federal grants
will not be made until such conditions are rectified.

AMOUNT OP FEDERAL APPROPRIATION AUTHORIZED

Three million dollars for fiscal year ending June 30, 1936; thereafter
an annual amount sufficient to carry out the purposes of the title.

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